JROC Retains MRAP Control To Stop Requirements Creep

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
May 15, 2007

The Pentagon's Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) is keeping acquisition control over the new Mine-Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles being bought and fielded to Iraq to make sure they get delivered on time, said Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and JROC chairman.
The individual services usually retain acquisition control for such programs. But the JROC is retaining that control at the higher level to ensure there is no delay in delivery of the vehicles, he said. "We don't want people to drop in new requirements," he said May 14 during a luncheon for the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.
Giambastiani acknowledged the requirements could be good ones and eventually wind up being part of the program. "But they have to come in and talk to us," he said. The priority in this case must be to get the MRAPs into the combat zone as quickly as possible, he said.
The armored vehicles are meant to protect troops from land mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), perhaps the biggest daily threat U.S. troops face in Iraq.
Costing about $1 million each, the MRAP vehicles have become a Pentagon priority. The Army had planned for 2,500 of them, but now the number could reach six times that amount.
Other counter-IED purchases also show the Pentagon's ability to execute rapid acquisitions when needed, Giambastiani said. The Defense Department is able to push through programs in days and months when it would normally take months or years, he said. "We simply cannot take that long."
But the JROC takes its time on other programs, he said. The group looks at funding changes and variances, feasibility and technology readiness levels (TRLs), he said.
JROC officials also take more time in looking at policy issues. For example, the group has talked about a U.S. Air Force proposal to become executive agent of higher-flying unmanned flying aerial vehicles (UAVs) three times in the past two weeks, Giambastiani said after the luncheon.
The group has asked the Air Force for more information about its proposal, and in a recent interview, service Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said he expected the JROC to make a decision soon.
Giambastiani said the proposal and the subject are important topics, but would not provide a timeline for when the JROC would decide on whether to back the Air Force's plan.
-- Michael Fabey
 
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